RALEIGH– The United States Attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina, Robert J. Higdon, Jr., announced that today in federal court Chief United States District Judge James C. Dever III, sentenced TANYATORN GHANJANASAK, 35, of Texas to serve one year and one day in federal prison, followed by three years of supervised release, upon conviction for Interstate Threats to Injure. GHANJANASAK previously pleaded guilty to the charge on March 5, 2018.

According to the Indictment and evidence presented at sentencing, in 2015 GHANJANASAK’s then husband, D.C., began receiving threatening text messages over his cell phone. D.C., a soldier stationed at Ft. Bragg, could not determine who was sending the threats, as they appeared to come from various unknown numbers.

In 2016, while vising with GHANJANASAK at her residence in Ohio, D.C. attempted to drive his car, but discovered that the brake lines had been cut. Also while in Ohio with GHANJANASAK, D.C. became ill and felt that he had been drugged.

Shortly thereafter, in January of 2017, GHANJANASAK sent D.C. an anonymous message claiming that she had tried to kill D.C., and that “the brakes and the poisons were me and you dumb ass can’t figure it out.” Following this threat in February of 2017, GHANJANASAK transmitted a message to D.C. stating, “There’s a surprise coming for you which is to die for [smiley face emoticon]. I hope you like it.” The next weekend, while vising with GHANJANASAK in Ohio, D.C. suffered a second incident where he felt that he had been drugged, and almost fell down a flight of stairs. GHANJANASAK sent an anonymous message immediately after this event stating, “Did you like your beer?!?!?!?!?”. GHANJANASAK also sent various other threats to murder D.C. and two other individuals, over a period of several months. At sentencing the Court found that GHANJANASAK had engaged in the above described conduct, thereby evidencing an intent to carry out her threats.

The FBI engaged in an investigation which ultimately revealed that GHANJANASAK was transmitting the threatening communications to D.C. and others using anonymous messaging applications from her home and workplace. GHANJANASAK had a medical degree and was practicing medicine at the time of these events.

The investigation of this case was conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Assistant United States Attorney William M. Gilmore represented the government in this case.